We are extremely glad to see that the Prime Minister
has appointed a Committee to inquire into " the eadsting arrangements " for our vast expenditure on Public Assistance. Thus a step has been accomplished in the work of the Denison House Committee which Mr. Geoffrey Drage, its moving spirit, described in our columns a fortnight ago. But we note that the Committee is merely one of inquiry and not of control, and that it. consists largely of the officials responsible for the working of the present system. What Mr. Drage and his sup- porters are working for is, of course, an impartial " Com- mission of Inquiry and Control " on the lines of 1834, which would have the power to deal with the enormous vested interests involved. But the present Committee is at least an earnest that the Government are alive to the urgency of the problem. One thing we cannot too strongly demand, namely, that the Committee should publish a full report of all the evidence brought before it, and not merely, on the model of some recent govern- mental committees of inquiry, a curt statement of its conclusions. We trust that when the Prime Minister receives the powerful Memorial to be presented to him by the Denison House Committee he will be enabled to meet its other demands, for complete and compre- hensive estimates for both past and future expenditure on Public Assistance, and for a comprehensive register of -all- beneficiaries.
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